Monday, October 23, 2017

Using Children's Books for French Language Study

As a supplement to our French curriculum this term we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar in French. I borrowed La Chenille Qui Fait Des Trous from the library, and we have been watching it on YouTube weekly so the children hear it read with a good accent. What's nice about this book for beginning French students is that it has a fair amount of repetition. It also includes numbers from 1-5, the days of the week, and the names of several fruit and different kinds of food.



The only drawback to this particular choice could have been that it is not an exact translation (The title is translated back into English as The Caterpillar that Makes Holes). However, the vocabulary is simple enough that we haven't found it to be a problem.

It was so fun last week to hear AJ(2) on the couch with the English version of the book saying, "Look Mama! Un papillon!" He also likes pointing out "la chenille" on every page.

My choice for the second six weeks of our term was going to be Georges va au Zoo (Curious George Goes to the Zoo), but sadly it is not on YouTube. I'm not sure if I want to read it to the boys myself. I could do it, but my French accent is not that great. (My husband has told me that I put emphasis on all the wrong syllables, and gave me an impression of how this would sound if I did it in English. My confidence is gone!)

Does anyone out there have any good ideas for other children's books I can use in this way? We really enjoyed doing this with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and I'd like to keep going.

Comments (3)

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No suggestions, but I like this idea! I'll have to give it a try. Did you check the library for French book and cd sets?
1 reply · active 387 weeks ago
Yes, I've been checking out all kinds of things from the library, but I find that the audio books I got had more complex vocabulary than we were ready for. I've decided to go with another Eric Carle title next: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? (Ours Brun, Ours Brun, Dis-Moi ce que tu vois). It is similar in that it has a lot of repetition, and introduces whole areas of vocabulary to explore (animals, colours).
Not sure if you're still looking for stories, but Little Songster has a youtube collection of French stories read aloud by a French speaker - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpqLpg4Yfz... :)

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